Late wings, early light problem

[andrew.searston]

Hi everyone
I’m doing a full restoration on my 1957 2 door having spent so much time fitting new heritage wings I have discovered the holes in all 4 wings are to big and wrong for the small front side lights and small rear (red lense) lights. They must be late wings for bigger lights, what’s the easiest solution to fixing this keeping my original lights, i don’t have any measurements to position them. Is it a common thing
Thanks

[ManyMinors]

All the wings now produced are drilled to suit the later lights. It is a simple enough job to measure the mounting holes in the original wings and transfer them to the new ones. I had to do this on my own car. At the rear, the earlier lights will fit the later wings but they end up in a slightly different position higher up the wing. Most people would never notice but if it bothers you, fairly simple alterations will deal with it.
At the front, part of the larger hole has to be filled in if you are going to rely on the original small sidelamps. Again, take the measurements from the original wings.

[andrew.searston]

Thanks for reply unfortunately I don’t have the original wings anymore so have no reference points

[ianmack]

The options for fitting late pattern front wings to an earlier car are either to make metal plates to bridge the different hole size, or else use the later and larger combined side/indicator lamp. I chose the latter which is much simpler and gives an amber indicator.

[geoberni]

Hi everyone
I’m doing a full restoration on my 1957 2 door having spent so much time fitting new heritage wings I have discovered the holes in all 4 wings are to big and wrong for the small front side lights and small rear (red lense) lights. They must be late wings for bigger lights, what’s the easiest solution to fixing this keeping my original lights, i don’t have any measurements to position them. Is it a common thing
Thanks

Hi andrew
I can't help regards the front, but I have some idea about the rear.
I assume your car as a '57 has the large chrome base straight to the wing, rather than the small chrome base on the body colour spacer.
That larger chrome base is shaped, so it'll fit in the right place when you find it.
See if you can get it to sit in a suitable position that matches the holes in the wing.

[win]

15906792269448058816270008483954.jpg (4.26 MiB) Viewed 1267 times

My small side light is 120 mm up from valance and 30 mm offset to the headlight.
Regards Win

[andrew.searston]

Thanks a great help thanks the rear lights I have are chrome base

[geoberni]

Hi - Here's a link to a post I made a few years ago when I started my Moggie Journey.

Basil was given a 'restoration' some 20 years ago which was a little bodged. One aspect being he retained his '54-'56 style rear lights but to get them to fit on the latter donor wings they used chrome bases of '56-'63 type lights, the sort you have, but painted them body colour.
This is how I know you should be able to fit them no problem.

The photos should give you an idea of where they will go.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=67364&hilit=wiper+motor

Also, if you scroll right to the end where I resurrected the topic a bit later, ManyMinors gives some info about the different positions.